A motor vehicle body typically includes panels where the vertical sides of the body intersect the horizontal floor of the body. These panels are exposed to the exterior of the vehicle and are often made of unfinished materials. The vehicle panels are commonly covered or shrouded by trim components that alleviate the unsightliness of the panels and provide an aesthetically pleasing look to the vehicle.
Typically, a series of apertures are manufactured into the paneling, thereby providing trim components the ability to be secured to the vehicle body with screws or other fasteners using various methods. The series of apertures is commonly found along the longitudinal direction at a position near the vertical center of the panel. However, securing at only one position along the longitudinal axis often causes excessive vibration, which leads to undesirable noise for occupants of the vehicle. To eliminate this problem, many panels have had additional apertures provided near the edge of the paneling to provide for further security and stability of the trim component. However, vehicle manufacturers frequently employ a pumpable sealer to seal gaps between the welded sheet metals of the vehicle body, in order to prevent water leakage into the passenger compartment. This sealer often leaks in positions near the edge of the paneling, thereby filling or clogging the surface of the fastener aperture. Filling or clogging makes attachment of the trim component difficult when using fasteners that project through holes at an edge portion of the vehicle panel. Accordingly, an apparatus is desired having the aforementioned advantages and solving and/or making improvements on the aforementioned disadvantages.